Melania Trump’s letter, obtained by Fox News, does not reference abducted Ukrainian children despite White House comment.
Donald Trump hand-delivered a personal letter from first lady Melania Trump to Russian leader Vladimir Putin raising the plight of Ukrainian and Russian children caught in the middle of the ongoing war between the two European countries, it was reported on Saturday.
Trump administration officials told Reuters the letter mentioned the abductions of children following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Putin was indicted by the international criminal court in 2023, and still faces arrest in 125 countries, for his alleged role in the war crime of abducting those children and transferring them from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
However, the text of the letter, which was obtained and posted online by Fox News on Saturday, is extremely opaque and makes no reference at all to the abductions or transfer of children from Russian-occupied Ukraine to Russia.
“Dear President Putin,” the letter begins. “Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their heart, whether born randomly into a nation’s rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility, and safety from danger.
“A simple yet profound concept, Mr. Putin, as I am sure you agree, is that each generation’s descendants begin their lives with a purity—an innocence which stands above geography, government, and ideology,” the first lady writes. “Yet in today’s world, some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter, untouched by the darkness around them—a silent defiance against the forces that can potentially claim their future.”
Rather than appeal to Putin to return the children his government has seized to their home country, the letter vaguely implores the Russian president to “restore their melodic laughter”.
“Such a bold idea transcends all human division, and you, Mr. Putin, are fit to implement this vision with a stroke of the pen today,” Melania Trump’s letter concludes. “It is time.”
Slovenian-born Melania Trump did not attend the peace summit between Trump and Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
But she has previously said that her ambition as US first lady was to be akin to Eleanor Roosevelt, who was known for her work advocating for children’s rights and welfare during Franklin D Roosevelt’s presidency.
Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the United Nations treaty definition of genocide.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, conveyed his gratitude to the US first lady on his call with Trump on Saturday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Saturday.
“During the conversation, President Zelenskyy also conveyed his gratitude to first lady Melania Trump for her sincere attention and efforts to bring forcibly deported Ukrainian kids back,” Sybiha said on X. “This is a true act of humanism.”
Ahead of Friday’s summit, the White House stated that Russia’s abduction of more than 20,000 Ukrainian children “remains a concern” for Trump seven months into his second presidency. Moscow has previously said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
The issue returned to the headlines earlier in August, when the non-governmental organization Save Ukraine accused Russia of “state-sponsored child trafficking” after a group of administrators in Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine published an online catalogue of what they called Ukrainian orphans.
Organization head Mykola Kuleba said the database from the Russia-installed administration’s education ministry in the Luhansk region contains data on 294 Ukrainian children under the age of 17 who have been separated from their parents.